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The homeless suffer from mental illness?

According to reliable sources, Ms Penny Low (Member of Parliament for Pasir Ris-Punggol GRC), allegedly commented that the people who are homeless in Singapore are so because of mental illness, or because they choose to be so.

Did she really make such a comment? If she did, what were her reasons for arriving at such a conclusion? If she did not make that statement, what was her position on the people who are homeless in Singapore? We asked Ms Low these questions in an email enquiry, to which she chose not to reply.

Pastor Andrew Khoo, the Executive Director of New Hope Community Services (NHCS), in response to The Online Citizen’s query, said that its Shelter for Men-in-Crisis do receive referrals from IMH, but the referrals were the “mild cases” who need a second chance at living independently. NHCS’s website states that their shelters will not accept referrals who are suffering “from serious psychiatric disorders and/or serious behavioural problems that require close individual supervision or nursing care”.

Dr Muni Winslow a psychiatrist and Executive Director of Promises (a mental health and addictions consulting and training company) responded to our queries, questioned if people who are homeless do indeed suffer from mental illness. He says that homelessness does correlate to mental illness, but that people do also become homeless “if they fall into bad times, lose their job or go to a casino and lose all their money.”

Dr Winslow acknowledges that it is possible for people to pretend to be mentally ill but that “there are ways to pick up people who are faking.”

In July this year when speaking about a Bill introduced in Parliament to prevent licensed moneylenders from laying first claim to the proceeds of HDB flat sales, Jurong GRC MP Halimah Yacob said, “When people sell the flats, they get nothing and still have to pay high interest on their loans. Some even become homeless.” This clearly implies that people do become homeless for various other reasons besides being mentally ill, and mainly because of financial hardships.

And some of these people who are homeless suffer from chronic (not transitional) homelessness because of certain govenment policies. See here.

When asked for her view on the alleged comment of Ms Low, Esther (not her real name) who is homeless says, “That means that everyone in my family including my 3-year old son and 8-year old daughter is mad, or we are pretending to be mad.”

It is important for legislators like Ms Low to be properly informed about issues like homelessness and not hold on to preconceived biases and/or prejudices (if she did make such a statement) so that they will not unfairly discriminate between their constituents – so that legislators like her can initiate and support appropriate policies which will benefit the disadvantaged and the needy.

"Where were the Farid Khans and the Salleh Maricans? Why didn't they come?... Because they knew that in an open election - all things being equal - a non-Chinese candidate would have no chance."
Having contested an election as a minority candidate, I am disturbed enough by his comments to write this note. Let me explain why.

Simple answer for PM Lee

I declined invitations to contest the 2011 General Election. This was because I was at a different stage of my life. My children were much younger, I had just come back from the USA a few years before and had to re-establish my career here. I did not know if I had the temperament for public life. These were just some of the reasons why I chose to decline those invitations.

Even in 2011, the pool of people who could qualify for the Presidential race was small.…

The Ministry of Communication and Information (MCI) has taken out a Facebook ad titled, 'Get real about fake news', The ad is taken out after the PAP-controlled Parliament passed the Protection from Online Falsehoods and Manipulation (POFMA) Bill, with all opposition Members of Parliament voting against the Bill.

The ad draws attention to the viral hoax that Punggol Waterway Terraces had collapsed. The ad said "the hoax triggered anxiety amongst the residents", and urged Singaporeans to "say no to fake news".

It is unfortunate that a website published such an unverified report, and it is certainly unacceptable that it caused much anxiety to the residents of the development (and to all Singaporeans). The publishers and the editors of the website acted irresponsibly in posting the report of the 'collapse' without proper verification, and no one should make any excuses for them for this.

Lamenting the lack of concentration of brilliance in Singapore, PM Lee Hsien Loong in a IPS dialogue held recently said that he believed in having a certain natural aristocracy in the system (a form of elitism where people are respected because they have earned that) for without that society will lose out. (Transcript of Speech here: http://bit.ly/1JOtiYP)

His views are of course not new and he had articulated them in another Speech in the year 2007, expressing why he believed that Singapore does not have enough talent for two A-Teams (link: http://bit.ly/1NFyA9s).

I am not sure if this view is healthy for Singapore. Why I say that? Let me quote a few persons and articles before I make my point.